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Enjoying the free drinks as Mayor of this, that or the other coffee shop or restaurant?

Ever thought that giving away your location on Twitter or 4sq can be dangerous?

The guys at PleaseRobMe.com did and they make a very obvious point.

The danger is publicly telling people where you are.
This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet…[...] The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.

We all know by now that privacy in the world of social networks is an issue, right?

Facebook offers us privacy settings to hide our status from lists of “friends” or a particular “friend”.

Why would you hide something from your friends?

Oh, wait… they’re not ALL your REAL friends.

Having a presence on a social network automatically implies that you are the only one responsible for the information you post out there and if there’s things that you don’t want the world to see, then, may I suggest that you can simply refrain from posting them?!

And what if your “friends” post something about you that you wanted hidden?

Did you ever dream about becoming a celebrity?

Well, hey-ho… now you know how it feels to be one!

Facebook and the rest of the social networking sites out there could help by implementing a policy whereby an individual cannot be named or tagged in a photo, a status update or a note etc. without their prior consent. But other than that it’s all up to you!

The latest LG anti-bullying campaign talks about “giving it a ponder” when texting and maybe we should follow that advice when posting something up online.

Despite all the controversy surrounding this topic, people tend to tell the truth about themselves on their Facebook profiles. The study carried out by Black et al. (2010) suggests that Facebook Profiles Reflect Actual Personality, Not Self-Idealization:

These results suggest that people are not using their OSN (online social network) profiles to promote an idealized virtual identity. Instead, OSNs might be an efficient medium for expressing and communicating real personality, which may help explain their popularity.

What do you think?

Social media is you and me!

Users consume it, define it and shape its future.

We learn by doing, gain “street cred” and share the experience.

WOM is not just about talking and making some noise! WOM is also about listening and believing! Are you the opinion leader in your group of friends? Who listens to you? Who believes what you say? Who do you listen to?

WOM is the way people gather information they can use to make decisions because it comes from others like them, people who they trust.

All it takes is one: one person to embrace that idea / product or service and believe that by sharing it with others like him / her will help others.

Before you know it a movement is created and others will follow – provided the leader has the right attitude – and soon enough a tribe is formed.

Generally speaking new ideas that challenge the status quo are rarely met with enthusiasm. They will, for the most part, be dismissed or ridiculed. It’s up to the leader to keep the flame burning and get “true followers” who will spread the word and make it all worthwhile. The followers, won’t do it for the leader or the movement, they’ll do it for their friends, family etc because they believe that an idea can help THEM!

Think of Twitter at its very beginning! Few believed in it and many did not see its purpose, classing it as “a waste of time” which will not provide opportunities or advantages for either individuals or businesses (nothing beyond the trivial status update that helps you keep in touch).

The market then shifted dramatically and Twitter is now a profitable platform for many businesses and freelancers, where they can leverage the Marketer-to-Consumer, Consumer-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business interactions within the context of a marketing objective.

In March 2009, at the SXSW, Foursquare was launched and the online world has seen similar reactions to this as have been experienced with Twitter in the past.

However, users are embracing it, proving once again the power of WOM and peer influence!

And Foursquare is leading the movement seeing a big increase in both the number of users and businesses using the service.

And now Foursquare has gone global. It will be interesting to follow how the use of this game based social network platform will evolve and how businesses will harness its power to build a brand and engage in the conversation with consumers.

Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or any other social media platform out there, it all boils down to how much you listen and how you use what others are saying to continue the conversation and keep them engaged.